Grammy-winning producer Andrew Watt is behind the highly anticipated Britney Spears and Elton John duet “Hold Me Closer,” according to numerous sources said. The information was released one year after Watt won the Grammy for producer of the year, non-classical, at the 2021 awards show.
Elton John disclosed that the song’s title is really “Hold Me Closer,” a line from the singer/1972 songwriter’s hit, in an Instagram post on Monday, Aug. 8. The collaboration was first speculated to be a “Tiny Dancer” duet. The release date for the song has not yet been made public.
Despite Watt’s prior collaborations with John on six songs from the singer’s 2021 collaboration album The Lockdown Sessions, including a new rendition of Metallica’s “Nothing Else Matters” with Miley Cyrus, Yo-Yo Ma, Robert Trujillo, and Chad Smith, “Hold Me Closer” is the first time Watt has collaborated with Spears.
Watt has also contributed to numerous other songs throughout his career, including Justin Bieber and DJ Snake‘s 2016 collaboration “Let Me Love You,” Camila Cabello‘s breakthrough solo single “Havana” and Shawn Mendes’s duet “Señorita,” 5 Seconds of Summer‘s “Youngblood,” Post Malone and Ozzy Osbourne‘s “Take What You Want,” Miley Cyrus‘ “Midnight Sky” and “Plastic Hearts,” Dua Lipa‘s “Break My Heart,” Bieber’s “Peaches” and many more.
Eddie Vedder’s 2022 solo album, Earthling, which was released in February, was Watt’s most recent project. At the BMI Pop Awards in 2019, Watt and Ali Tamposi shared the songwriter of the year award.
The 2020 release of “Matches,” featuring the Backstreet Boys, will be Spears’ first new song since her 2016 studio album Glory, which also featured the deluxe tracks “Mood Ring,” “Swimming in the Stars,” and the Backstreet Boys-assisted “Matches.” As of November 2021, when her 13-year conservatory program comes to a finish, Spears will officially return to music with the partnership.
Gus Dudgeon was the original producer of “Tiny Dancer,” a song from John’s 1971 album Madman Across the Water that reached at No. 41 on the Billboard Hot 100. The song has gained popularity through time and is now recognized as one of Elton John’s masterpieces. The song gained notoriety in 2000 when it was used in Cameron Crowe’s movie Almost Famous during a sing-along bus sequence.
